Senate Dems Opening to Nuclear as Path to GOP Support for Climate Bill

Key Senate Democrats signaled yesterday they are willing to negotiate with Republicans on nuclear power and expanded domestic oil and gas development if it helps in nailing down the 60 votes necessary for floor passage on a comprehensive global warming and energy bill.

"Every idea is on the table," said Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of Senate climate legislation. "We're going to work in a bona fide way with everybody to see how to bridge a gap here. We've got to get a 60-vote margin. That means you've got to legislate, which means you have to compromise."

Several moderate Senate Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they are in talks with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the nuclear language, as well as other key issues.

"A guy like Senator Kerry is looking for coalitions," Graham said. "If you had a bill that would allow for responsible offshore drilling, a robust nuclear power title, I think you could get some Republican votes for a cap-and-trade system."

The 821-page climate bill from Kerry and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) includes a preliminary section on nuclear power that provides greater incentives for worker training and research, as well as funding for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission program to study the feasibility and reliability of expanding commercial reactors use beyond their current 40-year operating licenses, and into the 60- and 80-year operating periods.

The Nuclear Energy Institute said last week the Kerry-Boxer provisions were "a start in the right direction" but wanted to work with senators to create a "meaningful nuclear energy title."

Kerry yesterday said he is open to tacking onto the nuclear provisions in the bill. "There's a nuclear title and it invites discussion on that," he said. "I'm willing to sit down with anybody and talk seriously about how we proceed in a serious way."

Graham said he has urged the Obama administration and Democratic leaders to set up working groups for senators not on the relevant committees to address the nuclear power issue and questions about domestic energy development.

Graham suggested Kerry look to the tentative agreement reached last year among roughly 20 Senate moderates -- Democrat and Republican -- that would open up large swaths of new federal acreage to oil and gas development in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and along the coasts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

"I'm not talking about anything that hasn't been vetted," Graham said. "This is an idea that has been vetted and got a lot of Democratic support."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also cited the work of the same group of moderate senators on energy. "There's more common ground than there has been with health care," she said. "It just depends on what it is, but again, I think people are willing and open to talk about any energy that helps our country to put us back in the driver's seat again."

Kerry said he is trying to get buy in from the Obama administration on a variety of negotiation points on the climate bill, citing meetings Monday that included Obama, White House political adviser David Axelrod, White House science adviser John Holdren and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

"The message [Obama] wanted to get over is he's committed to moving forward," Kerry said. "He views it as a critical. It's a job creator. A national security priority."

After talking with Holdren and Chu, Kerry said the administration is focused on the nuclear waste issues -- no doubt a sore spot given longstanding opposition from Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to the Yucca Mountain permanent waste storage site.

"We're looking at the technology and the science very, very closely, and obviously attendant issues," Kerry said. "There are a number of different concerns about that. But we're looking at it. We're trying to figure it out."

What the Republicans want

Graham said he is pushing for language in the Senate bill that puts nuclear power on par with wind and solar power in terms of tax credits and inclusion in a nationwide renewable electricity standard.

"Also to deal with the waste stream," Graham added. "You've got to have a disposition plan to deal with the waste."